Another unit. (Dark Ages)

I am of course talking about Dux Britaniarum where a unit starts as 6 figures. So yet a whole unit finished.  Why do I think this is strange when 12 figures could be 480 in Napoleonic wargames? I don't know.  NO whole army picks just yet. but one is planned but I still need to do 3 more units. (2 units of 6 and 1 unit of 4 Skirmishers). They have now all been purchased and indeed the next unit is already started.

I did not put them in the same order when taking the front and back photos but still I am sure you will forgive me. the colours are authentic, (Red Dyed with Madder (in real life) and Blue dyed with Brazil Wood (again in real life.) Most (BUT not all) colours could be dye in dark age Europe as long as you steer clear of PURPLE and dark colours. Also remember that paint and cloth dye are very different.

Well that is a quick post for today. More again soon. All the best Clint

A totally bias Club AAR

At the club on Sunday 6 of us played a 28mm Zulu game. I was the Zulus with Richard in the centre and Jim on the far left. (I was on the right). Against us ws Tim and Colin, playing the British. We were using "The men who would be Kings" rules and all the terrain was supplied by Matt as were the British while Jim Supplied the Zulus.

Having learnt in the past that "tribal forces " need
to make the best use of any cover.
It was a little disturbing that Jim had nearly all the scrub
 over his side of the table. I had a few hills
 and Poor Richard had a large open area to cross.

I skjityed the hills as best I could.
JIM malingered at the back (If he ever gets a blog)
Then and only then can he have his say.

Richard had to cross open ground.
The results were well shall we say predictable.
Tim sent his cavalry (Lancers) and attacked one of my married units
the British Lancers won, but not decisively
But it was a win. Costly for both of us.

using every inch of cover, and being criticised by my own team for doing so
I advanced without taking many further casualties.
yes I took a few, but not very many from shooting.

Suddenly in a position to attack. Richards forces did
 manage to attack the defended barricade.
But he was beaten back with terrible casualties.

It was then I was able to launch my attack.
Instead of attacking Tim who had squared off against me. I
swerved and attacked Colin's troops in the rear.
I think all the other players were surprised.

Tim was of course happy that he was not attacked.
But sad at the same time as the
british line lost quite badly
Resulting in a huge hole in their centre.

I cannot claim it all my own way though.
Tim used carbine fire from horseback and almost wiped out my married unit.
 

My unmarried unit also lost it,s leader in the fight and was thus unwilling to motivate.
But the hole in the British line did allow the other Zulu players to
advance and exploit the situation.

Over all it was a Zulu victory and one dear I say I was fairly instrumental
in creating.

All players did loose a lot of troops.
(Strangely except Jim)
On both sides.
OK I was a little harsh on Jim in this write up. he was not really that bad.
But I did say I was going to write up a bias report against him. So consider that done.





 

FINISHED AND STARTED.

Yes that sounds like a music album title for a cheap band from the 60's) I apologise if this was an album title, but you get the idea.

Firstly here is the remains of my German Aeronef fleet. You may recall I forgot to paint one when I did the rest. so that has now been rectified.

They are Van 7 German patrol nefs. (LINK to shop) They came as part of the German starter fleet and are now painted and with the others. (still trying to sort out bases I am happy with.)
But they are done so nothing to worry about too much for now.

The bottom pic is some figures I sent off for from Gripping Beast. I must say the service was exemplary.  They arrived in their own card board box very fast indeed.

I have started the next unit and with luck I will finish them  pretty soon but not this weekend. Generally the figures are very good and well suited to Dux Britaniarum. Buying direct from the maker was cheaper than eBay as well So expect to see the first unit of 6 middle of next week. Over all I am excited to paint them and assembling them was a pleasure and not a chore.

Hopefully an AAR on Monday, until then take care have fun and paint like crazy if you get the chance.

AND THEN THERE WERE 3

Yes let me take you back a few weeks when I finished these  (( http://clint-anythingbutaone.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/ltv4s.html ))

I said at the time that one was in worse condition and I may or may not get around to painting it. Well the Joy is that I have finished it! One of the reasons was that I got them all cheap and they were badly cast. So badly cast that there was a whole on the back (tail) entrance ramp about as large as the nail on my little finger. As well as chips air bubbles and dust particles and bobbling. (I am sure there is a technical term but you know what I mean.)

 Since then I have repaired the hole, being honest it did not take long and I probably could have done a better job. but as I considered the vehicle a "Throw-away" I was not in the mood to spend too much time on it. BUT as you can see I am glad I did repair it. As I now have 3. OKAY they are not perfect, but they are good enough.

If you look at the bottom of the ramp inside you can see the repair. Not brilliant, but good enough for me and any games I put on. As it was painted at a different time it is a different shade of green, it also has a different style of base. Oh well my mistake  and at least I have another vehicle ready for the table top.

So job's a good 'Un! as far as I am concerned. I have shown all 3 together just to kind of prove this is a new vehicle and not one of the others re-photographed. And at the very end is a Youtube video of one being put through its paces by some vehicle restorers.

I do have 3 more Amtracks (Amphibious-tractors) to do, but they are more fighting vehicles than troop transports. Therefore I have left those for another post while I think about what kind of turrets (yes turrets) I put on them/

Until next time take care, have fun and paint something.

All the best Clint

NEW PROJECT ALERT

Well almost (sorry Joe ). Personally I did not like SAGA, I know many people did and that is great, but for me I could not get to grips with troops that could do something one turn and not do it the next. I am sure they could not have forgotten it in a space of 10 minutes. Anyway I like the period and setting and already have the figures (well some of them at least). Now Dux Britaniarum is currently played down the club so that makes sense as the "way to go!"

Dux Britaniarum is set about 500 years earlier than SAGA. This could be a problem is set later. But earlier the armour and weapons were pretty much the same. OK there is less chainmail and less Dane Axes and less hauberks, with almost no need to split he front for mounted knights. But there were more bearded axes and more Van Dyke mail shirts. (Get your wellies on if you want to get into the deep bullshit about exactly when and where they changed.... it was an evolution and not overnight at one battle)But generally it was similar if not exactly the same.


So I raked out my Saga Figures and started to have a look at what I could use and guess what!  Here they are!

From left to right
Lords champion. Full metal jacket, 2 weapons and a shield and ready to take on another champion if asked.
Lord (with hunting dog on base) Originally a SAGA Welsh lord, but quite happily acceptable for Dux Britaninarum
2 lesser/younger lords Nuff said really

 8 elite warriors for the Saxons. No one give me a hard time about the shields. I went for simple colour combinations so we could easily see who was in each unit. While it may not be historically correct it was something we did do in re-enactment so it is something I am happy to continue with.

As you can see there are 2 units of 8 figures each. While you only need 6 figures to make a unit the unit can increase to 8 figures in a campaign. Therefore it was easier to make the units 8 figures at this stage and not 6.

These troops could Be British or Saxon (only 1 unit for British), or at a REAL push Sub Romano British, but then we are stretching the figures a bit.

Rather than re-base I did stick with 20mm square bases it makes no real difference in the rules so no need to change them. All the figures are Gripping Beast and with the exception of the dog and the lord are plastic which makes them a cheap force to put together

I have already sent for the rest of the troops so that I may make either a British or a Saxon  force. While I shall not be able to field 2 forces I suspect there is anough players at the club who can already field a force so I am happy to just have one.

That's it. Thanks for looking today. I suspect it will be more 15mm Pacific war items in a few days time.

Spectrum is Green (SIG)

 I have had these hanging around for a while. I also have some Highland cattle that I was actually looking for when I unearthed these. Highland Cattle... best not to ask I am sure they will be along soon.

Anyway here are 4 Crooked Dice "Timelift" security. Any resemblance they may have to any Gerry Anderson Puppet shows is purely coincidental. In fact to show they were not part of the Puppet show I have deliberately selected different colours.

WE Have Captain Tangerine He did start as captain Lemon but my cousin did ask if I would paint one in her favourite colour.
Captain Grey (again it did start as captain Charcoal but it looked better a little lighter.
Captain Tourquise. Maybe from the Indian Sub continent.
And Captain Purple. Of African descent but he could come from anywhere really.

I have no games for these planned, I just wanted to paint them. All finished within 1 day, undercoat to varnish and all because I cannot (at the moment) find the cattle I want to paint.

I am tempted to get some more as they were so easy and so much fun to paint but until I find a use for them I shall not.

That is it for the Bank holiday weekend. Another post on Tuesday.

Have a good weekend all the best Clint

Still working on SCW

Yep I am still working on my armies for the Spanish Civil war.... Although I must admit I am running out of steam.

These are all Pendraken 10mm figures. Actually the Anti Tank gun is old Skytrex Action 200. Which n longer seem available. And that just shows how old I am.

These are all nationalist troops, but that said there is no reason they could not be Republican troops. It really was not as clear cut as we would like to think.  The Antitank crew are actually WW2 British Navy, but does that matter? I think not. There is no point in playing the SCW and getting fussy about which is which and what is what. Everyone used anything they thought was best.

I was lucky enough to be asked to playtest some SCW rules. And they should be commercially available before the end of the year. I will not at this stage go into detail as that would be very improper. I will just say they did work, but from my point of view (not having seen the final draft) they did not seem very different to WW2 rules and the Spanish Civil war was very different. SO I will need to wait and see what the final draft is like before saying anything more.

Just 4 more stands 3x Light MG's and 1 Anti tank.

Not a lot more to add. Thanks for looking today and back to 28mm for Sundays post... (assuming they get finished today.)

Another Zombie!

Yes the post title is much more about me than anything else. I just cannot, for some reason, get going this week.  Only 1 Zombie finished.

The figure is by Mantic and part of the Walking Dead starter box set. I have tried to make it look like her tights are ripped and laddered. Also  that she did at one time work in a diner. If this is your take o how the figure is painted brilliant. If not I am sure you have in your head a back story for her.

As with the majority of these zombies they come with wounds already and most often a deformed limb as well. On this one her left arm is broken and hangs at a strange angle. They all have something though so expect to see more on the next one.

I am still very much enjoying the walking dead game but am finding the starter set very limiting. Which clearly it is designed to be as they want you to send more and even more on it as time goes by. For me though after 2 playing sessions (or 7 games) the "Shine" is wearing thin.  This does not mean playing will cease or the painting will stop, just that it is not as new and exciting as it was when I first got it.

I have no painting fr Matt at present ad have nearly finished the stuff (I do not show) for Peter. So no plans for the next post just yet. It will need to be a surprise. Maybe the last 2 German Aeronef ships, maybe the start of the Dutch fleet. If I am very lucky I will find the cattle I know I bought but seem to have hidden as they will be the start of a newly revised project taking over from Saga. We still all (well most) have the figures so perhaps it will re-start.

That though is it for today. Al the best Clint

Te-Ke (15mm Japanese Armoured car With tracks)

yes the title is misleading. It is not a Tank. It was not designed as a tank or used as a tank and it is not intended to be a tank. I grant you it does look like a tank, but a very small one. It was actually designed and used as an armoured car. Yes it has tracks but with only 12mm of armour (which is enough to stop bullets and shrapnel of the period,) It was never intended to be a tank.

 While it is NOT a tank it was armed with either a medium/heavy machinegun or a 37mm anti tank gun. All these have the second option. I was going to paint the other turrets up and use them, but as these turrets kept falling off (and at least 1 broke) I have decided to keep the glued in place.

The models are "battlefront" Flames of War 15mm vehicles. based on plastic-card 30mm frontage and 40 mm long. So feel free to measure the photos and see how big they are. (They are small) . During WW2 about 620 were built and they were used in China, Burma and the pacific Islands. In PBI they have an armour value of 4 and a gun value of 5, which is pretty low. BUT as they are intended to be used as tracked armoured cars we cannot really hope for them to stand up to late war heavy armour. They just could not. They only have a crew of 2 the driver and the commander. The commander takes the role of gunner, loader and vehicle officer, while the driver drives.

There are not so many of these that survived the war and many/most would have been destroyed but a couple of examples still do exist I tank museums around the world.

These 5 help to give some variety and a very little armour to my Pacific forces. Yes looking at the photo on the right they were this small. And small obviously means both low profile and harder to hit. So perhaps they may be alright on the table (who am I kidding players will kill these as quickly as they can).  Which takes nothing away from how much fun they were to paint. Just do not expect them to last long against many opponents.

Terrain (6mm SCi Fi)

 Ok I will confess I do not usually put Work In Progress (WIP) pics on the blog. But the things I were painting have had issues. So I will probably finish them tonight and blog them Saturday, ahead of the club on Sunday. While they are not actually needed for the club on Sunday they may well get an outing anyway.

But today I thought I would share some small 6mm sci fi terrain.  These are home made and not painted just yet. I may talk about painting later, there may well be a change of plan/direction afoot! (NO NOT a new project).

These are very simple. Just table-tennis balls cut in half and stuck on an MDF base. Then I went around them with some spare green-stuff to give them some texture. The connectors are just plastic 3/4 tube (again that I had spare) butted up to the tennis balls or on separate bases.  Very simple, very quick very easy. No big deal.

I went for some VERY simple buildings just because at this scale making things hard for yourself is just a waste of time and effort.  As I see as much if not more of the complex as being underground this is all I really need at this stage. The very simple design lets it fit all terrain and is only dictated by how I paint them. As I do not want to make trees I am thinking of either a desert or Ice planet. Ice planet was my first choice but since then I have started to tidy up my 20year(+) desert boards so I may paint all the Ice planet forces as desert forces. Just o I do not need to get the terrain done for an Ice world.

Hopefully I will get the thing I was painted finished for tonight/tomorrow morning. If so More Pacific WW2 will be shown next. If not I may have to wait until Monday and a club AAR.
Thanks for looking more soon.... I HOPE

LVT4's

NO not the bath-tub of doom! These re 2 Landing vehicle Tracked (Mk4) Know as LVT 4's, if you are American and the "Buffalo" if you are British. Either name is fine by me.

They are 15mm vehicles for my US forces, while they were also used a little by the British (and Commonwealth) they were not heavily used in Europe . But they did see action in the Pacific.

 These have been VERY badly cast with bits missing and air bubbles and mold slips and just about everything wrong you can imagine. But they were cheap on eBay I think someone tried to start casting from another make and just did not know what they were doing.  Ok Moan over, as I said they were cheap and for that I can forgive a lot. I will not use the seller again though. Americans being well American did give them between 2 and 4 machine guns which are not included. Also the MGs could be either .50 cal or .30 cal depending I think on the stock and how many were to be used. That does not matter.

In real life they could transport up to 28 men or a jeep or artillery piece or supplies or well just about anything from ship to shore. In PBI "Carriers" no matter how large can carry 4 infantry stands, so a squad, not a platoon. So an agreement needs to be made (which I have made) with normal players on using them. For me they will mostly be acting as troop deployment markers and not actual fighting vehicles. As PBI works in squares thy will (Temporarily) make the beach square Partial cover and allow troops to deploy in their square and the 1 on either side (Which will NOT get the cover bonus.)

Being just green with tracks and weathering they were an easy paint and both done and based and put away in an evening with no issues, complaints or squabbles. While not super useful they do round out the US amphibious capability in some WW2 games.

below is a Youtube clip of the LVT4 in action (from a film/TV series) just for those NOT familiar with the vehicle. And if anyone wants to know what to get me as a gift a real one would be most welcome. Colours and MG configuration could and were changed to suit the need

 Or here is a real life on in a separate clip

Beau Geste (or Carry on Follow that camel, I will let you decide!)

Yes I have enough figures for a trial game. The problem is, and it is not really a problem, more an issue to work around. Anyway the problem is people turning up at the club with no plans and hoping to squeeze into another game. They are not to blame, I do this any number of times in a year. But as it stands I DO not have enough figures for them to do this in a FFL (French Foreign Legion Game), Given a few months it will not be an issue, at all.

But at present I only have 7 FFL. I have enough MOUNTED Arabs But not enough dismounted Arabs so maybe after a few practice game up the shed on my own I can invest in some more. The good news is that TIM down the club (LINK) makes them. you may have to specifically ask for FFL as they are WW1 French Conversions and I do not think they are on sale just yet. But he is a nice guy and will probably sell some if the money is right. Anyway all the terrain is built and as mentioned the Arabs are painted. So finally at very long last here are the first of the FFL.

They are 20mm NOT 15mm or 28mm, a proper scale 1/72. (No one knows what 28mm is due to scale creep and while some call 15mm 1:100th scale it is closer to 1/123rd scale if we are being purist! as a man at 1/100th scale would stand 17.78 mm tall and not 15mm)

Climbing off soapbox these are 20mm or 1/72 nd scale.. As mentioned above they are all IT MINIATURES (follow the link above) should you want any.

I plan to use an adaption of the "Songs of Drums and Shakos" which in my head I am calling "Songs of Blades and Kepis" I only really need to re-write the points costs for each side and we are good for a game. However that is at least 1 month away (the Game). Due to other commitments down the club and a show, maybe 2.  So as ever my mind is faster than my paint brush.

That's it for today, just 7 FFL finished and a lot of waffle.
All the best Clint


take the vehicles out and we have an Arab town
in 20mm